At his introduction as the new head coach of the Uruguayan national football team on May 17, 2023, at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, the Argentine Marcelo Bielsa (left) chats with Ignacio Alonso, president of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF), while standing next to Bielsa. The event took place at the Centenario Stadium. On May 15, Marcelo Bielsa was selected to lead Uruguay as head coach, and his primary objective is to qualify the team for the World Cup in 2026. Photo by the AFP.
Marcelo Bielsa, the legendary new coach of Uruguay, stated on Wednesday, when he was officially introduced to the press for the first time, that the South American nation have the talent to enable them to dream of achieving victory.
Even if his trophy cabinet is relatively empty in comparison to those of other greats of the game like Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, or Jose Mourinho, the 67-year-old is largely regarded as one of the most important managers in the sport of football. His nickname is “El Loco,” which translates to “the madman.”
The signing of Bielsa, which had been anticipated for quite some time, had generated a great deal of enthusiasm in Uruguay over the course of the preceding month. This was in response to Uruguay’s disappointing departure from the group stage at the World Cup held in Qatar in 2018, following which Diego Alonso decided not to renew his contract.
But Bielsa is certain that the current generation of players from the tiny South American country of barely 3.5 million people can bring back the glory days despite the fact that famous offensive combination Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani have both retired from playing for their countries on the international stage.
According to what he told reporters at the Centenario stadium in the center of Montevideo, Uruguayan supporters may feed their aspirations of grandeur on the basis of the “top level players” that their team has.
Bielsa said that he turned down considerably more lucrative offers from club teams in order to take over the reins at the two-time World Cup champions, whose most recent victory at the world level was in 1950.
“One of the most important considerations that I made was the fact that no club would have been able to provide me with a team of players comparable to the one that Uruguay possesses at the moment,” he stated.
The midfielder Federico Valverde of Real Madrid, the attacker Darwin Nunez of Liverpool, and the center back Ronald Araujo of Barcelona are all members of the next generation of superstars in soccer.
Despite his exalted stature in the game, the only medals he has are an Olympic gold medal with Argentina’s under-23 team, three Argentine titles with Newell’s Old Boys (two) and Velez Sarsfield, and a Championship trophy with Leeds United.
Bielsa, on the other hand, has been hailed by Guardiola himself as “the best coach in the world.”
Bielsa remarked, “I’ve never coached one of the 20 biggest clubs in the world and they’ve never approached me.” “I’ve never coached one of the 20 biggest clubs in the world”
“I’m not even close to being one of the greats.”
Bielsa stated that Uruguay’s record under legendary veteran coach Oscar Tabarez, who led the team to victory in the 2011 Copa America a year after reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, was greater to his accomplishments with Argentina and Chile. He made this claim by pointing out that Uruguay won the Copa America in 2011.
However, Bielsa’s high-tempo attacking style has consistently shown to be popular with supporters.
He has agreed to remain with the club through the completion of the World Cup qualification campaign in 2026, and his contract will be automatically extended to cover the tournament itself in the event that Uruguay are successful in their bid.
In his first month in charge, he will lead Uruguay in two friendlies against Nicaragua and Cuba. In September, he will lead Uruguay in its first World Cup qualifying match, which will be played against his previous team, Chile.
Bielsa had a brief playing career as a center defender before leaving at the age of 25 to pursue a career in coaching. He was born into a bourgeois family in Rosario, Argentina, which is also the hometown of Lionel Messi.
Following his achievements with Newell’s and Velez, he assumed leadership of the national team in the year 1998.
In 2004, he led Argentina to the final of the Copa America and won the Olympic Games with the under-23 team, which included Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano, and Gabriel Heinze. In 2005, he led Argentina to the final of the Copa America again.
After that, he had a fruitful coaching career with Athletic Bilbao, where he led the Basques to the finals of the Spanish Cup and the Europa League in 2012. During that season, Athletic Bilbao even defeated Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United both at home and on the road in Europe.
After that, he became more known for the contentious exits he made from his clubs in the wake of widely publicized conflicts with the upper echelons of those clubs’ bureaucracies.
It was just one game into his second season with Marseille when he decided to step down, and he was only in command of Lazio for two days before moving on to Lille.